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Where the heck have I been? Playing hooky, that’s where. This is going to have to be an extra long post to make up for my lack of blogging lately!!

I was on spring break for a week, I visited Anna Maria Island, in FL. Ate lots of seafood, got to spend a lot of time with family, met some family I had never met, relaxed, and ate some more seafood! I also collected more family recipes while I was there, from my Great Aunt Joyce, looks like there is going to have to be a sequel to my cookbook to include some of the treasures she shared with me. It was a great week off of school!! But all good things must come to an end.

My Dad, Cousin Jan, Myself, and my Mom, enjoying a fantastic dinner. This is where I had the tasty strawberry salad, continue reading for more about my new salad addiction

My Dad and I enjoying a celebratory pineapple martini (note his little brother martini, and my grown up martini!)

My Great Aunt Joyce, she is such a joy!

Fast forward to this week>>>>>>>>I finished my cookbook! I sent it to the printer Wednesday, and now I am waiting for my first copy!!! But that doesn’t mean it is time to stop cooking!

While I was in Anna Maria I had this wonderful strawberry salad. When I returned to Michigan I decided I had to try to replicate this salad. It was lots of strawberries, a little spring greens, candied nuts, and a thick goody balsamic reduction (the restraunt also put blue cheese on the salad, for the home version I skipped the cheese). Strawberries are not quite in season yet, so the ones I got were from Florida, but soon enough I will be making this salad with fresh local berries!

Cut up lots of strawberries, I mean lots!

Cook some pecans with butter and brown sugar, allow to cool.

Make a simple balsamic reduction, allow to cool in a small glass jar.

Plate with a little spring mix, a pile of strawberries, candied nuts, and the balsamic reduction.

The best part about making this at home is you can lick the plate, guilt free.

Even though my cookbook has been sent to the printer that isn’t the end of my project. I still have to plan the installation. Today I went to lots of thrift stores, collecting objects to complete the installation, stay tuned to see how this turns out!

Just a sneak peek at some of the items that are going to go into my installation! Lots more to come!

And thats still not all!! I ordered some new business cards that are the same theme as my cookbook. These will be at my senior show for people to take with them if they want to know more about the project, this blog, my website, or want to get in touch with me! I ordered the cards from Moo. What an awesome company. They have great customer service, they helped me make some tweaks last minute, and the cards turned out better than I could of imagined. The quality is just stellar!

My Moo cards arrived in these awesome boxes, I'm a sucker for good packaging.

Moo customer service is beyond amazing, I highly recommend this company. Here is the front of one of the three different cards I got.

The back of my business cards have a recipe and a link to my website. I am not sure if it is a business card, or a recipe card? Hmmmm...

Notice the quality of the paper, thick and matte, ahhhh I love nice paper.

Well I think that was the longest blog post ever! Thanks for hanging in there folks!